McField angry as UPM ignores boundary report
(CNS): More than eight months after the 2023 Electoral Boundary Commission handed over its report on a revised election landscape, local attorney Steve McField is enraged that the Cayman Islands Government has failed to deal with it. McField and his fellow commissioners, EBC Chairperson Dr Lisa Handley and Adriannie Webb, worked for several months on the report, consulting with the public and trying to find a way to balance the challenges of growing voter numbers in Bodden Town and retaining historic district boundaries.
It is now less than one year before Cayman will go to the polls, and the election campaign is expected to officially begin in February 2025. However, the current administration has not yet responded to the report or outlined which of the commission’s recommended options it will implement to tackle the significant imbalance that now exists across the constituencies, which will need to be addressed before the 2025 General Election to ensure a fair vote.
The lack of response has fuelled the anger of McField. When he called into Radio Cayman’s talk show, For the Record, last week, it said it was “very disgusting” that the report was still sitting with the CIG with “no word… and no debate” about the EBC’s findings and whether or not the government intends to accept the recommendations. He took aim at the administration’s overall lack of planning or policies, which he described as “dysfunctional”.
“You cannot have an Electoral Boundary Commission give a report and… then it just sits there and nobody, not an MP or a member of Cabinet or anybody, has said… let us look at this report,” he said.
The latest register of electors published on 1 April lists 23,470 voters, slightly less than the 23,496 on the list last summer when the EBC reviewed the constituencies. Bodden Town East remains the largest constituency across the country with 1,654 registered voters, while Cayman Brac East is the smallest with just 468 voters — an illustration of the major differences that cannot be addressed because of the constitutional requirement for the Sister Islands to have two MPs regardless of the number of voters.
There are problems on Grand Cayman, too. East End, the smallest constituency on Grand Cayman, has just 754 voters, which is fewer than half the number in its neighbouring constituency of BTE. Even within the district of Bodden Town, there are notable differences, as Savannah currently has 1,470 voters. In the district of West Bay, there are 1,190 voters currently registered in WB Central, which is 355 voters fewer than in WB South.
There are at least 5,500 people with the right to vote who have not yet registered, which means the voter numbers will increase before the election. And as the population grows and more people become eligible to vote, the discrepancies between the constituencies will increase, as will the number of constituents that MPs are representing.
This means the electoral landscape becomes less and less democratic for those voters and residents in bigger constituencies as their vote becomes less influential compared to their neighbours in smaller seats.
The report has recommended numerous changes to create four supersized districts in Bodden Town and tweaked the constituency boundaries within most of the traditional districts to create equitable-sized seats within them. However, even if those recommendations are adopted, there will be a 22% difference between the four seats in Bodden Town and the six in George Town.
The commission also suggested using numerals to label the new constituencies rather than the geographical area of the district, so George Town North would become George Town 1.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
The big question should be “why did he think they would do any different?” They have always ignord anything to do with any changes to bring them out of the past and out of third world culture and they always will.
Blaming BT voting on Caymanians (Jamaican born) woters……yet Caymanians (42nd generation – present) sit on their asses complaining instead of woting……
Good ole Caymanian common sense from the Sacred Wessell.
Next election,I am voting for the candidate who makes born and bred Caymanians first class in their country, right now we are not. This is the Cayman Islands not little Jamaica.
I suspect you will have NO ONE to vote for based on your criteria. The electorate has voted for poor candidates for too long; the horse has left the barn.
Born and bred? You may want to clarify, since I suspect you are not including kids born here to a single Caymanian parent.
UPM is failing this country.
Successive Governments for the last 30yrs have failed this Country Bobo.
Yet we keep woting for them and expecting different results……
Zero accountability.
Zero results.
Nobody voted for UPM, or PACT, or Unity…these were all power groups that formed governments.
Said groups are led and made up of Individuals who have been in The LA for the last 30yrs……..
So sad to sit and watch the decline of this country under the leadership of the uneducated, unprincipled and misguided MPs we have now. The prospective new MPs are also leaving much to be desired.
“We in a mess!!!”
Former MLA
Person born in the UK with belonger status = Caymanian dual citizen as also BOTC
Person Born in Canada wiht belonger status = Caymanian dual citizen as aso BOTC
Person born in the USA with belonger status = Caymanian dual citizen as also BOTC
Person born in Jamaica with beloner status = Caymanian dual citizen as also BOTC
Person born in Cayman whose parent had belonger status at the time of their birth = British Overseas Territory Citizen and Caymanian
CAYMANIAN is not a nationality.
IT IS a nationality because Cayman is a nation. What is it NOT is a citizenship because Cayman is a territory, not a sovereign country.
Look up the definition of nation and then tell me we don’t have one. It just means a group of people with a common culture and history inhabiting a particular area. We have 300 years of that documented so yep this is a nation.
Not a sovereign nation, no such thing as a Caymanian. BOTC is what you are.
It doesn’t work that way. Go tell the Navajo Nation they aren’t a nation either. They’ll ban you from the reservation and have their police escort you away.
Except for the part where it very much does work that way.
The Cayman Islands is a country with a flag, that is a dependent territory of the United Kingdom. Caymanian is a territorial immigration status conferring rights to permanence, business ownership, and other territorial support. The Passport travel document is issued from the UK. The CI Status criteria and stamp are local. So Caymanian is ascribed as a nationality by the many that can’t grasp the technical nuance and privilege underlying the dependent co-relationship. That includes many MPs.
As the saying goes..
You can take the man out of Jamaica, but you can’t take Jamaican out of the man.
We unfortunately have to suffer the consequences.
You’d be angry too if a boundary report that was being ignored was your sacred vessel
Time to clean house especially in BTE and BTW. These two districts are overrun by Jamaican expats turned Caymanians who vote because of what the two current candidates can give them.
Bodden Town under Saunders’ direction will be the root of Caymanian destruction. His lust for power will quietly work towards Jamaicanisation, followed by an Independence movement.
His “Is our time now” followers will destroy all confidence in Cayman and start the exodus.
FCO hope you’re watching.
As opposed to all those multi generational Brackers who elect JuJu and Moses based on … what they can give them.
Stran look like he know exactly how far that report was going.
When isn’t McField angry. Just listen to him on the radio. Endless complaining and mindset stuck in the 80’s.
he is always angry, and always an ass. and always asking questions he should know the answer to. Look up gerrymandering and that’s why they wont touch the boundaries. “Party” in power wants to stay in power.
Why shouldn’t he be? do you understand why he is angry?
Elections are coming up and the UPM (Judasanna) Government is stting on it ..Why?
I’m angry too!
What happened to the PR points review? Wasnt Steve meant to be chairing that too?
Let’s be fair. PACT sat on it too. Don’t forget to be mad at Wayne in addition to the UPM cohort.
UPM = PACT – Panton
Has he blamed expats for it yet.
National Elections Now!! The One Man One Vote is a disaster and has led to epic vote buying. No need to increase the number of constituencies as the island will sell out of turkeys for sure this Christmas!!
If there are 19 seats then do a national vote for 19. Let the people decide and this will stop the vote buying and weed out the candidates that can’t even debate on issues as they got elected on vote buying and handouts!
Whatever party has the majority of candidates forms the government.
Let’s see which one of the current MPs would even have the balls to support this option and amend the constitution.
From what I am hearing the horse trading is in full swing already as UPM is not a party and only the name to a group of MPs.
The last election revealed that Jay Ebanks, Isaac Rankine and Sabrina Turner signed a document pledging to form the government with PPM then jumped ship to join PACT. People voted for them under the impression they would form the government with PPM.
This isn’t about whether you support PPM or not but can be argued a betrayal of trust.
direct rule now.
Hardly. We are the UK’s premier territory now.
Bermuda’s Government House was condemned last year and is undergoing years of work. The Deputy Governor’s residence has been derelict since 2018. We have 20,000 more people than they do and a constructive relationship whereas theirs has always been combative. They were given too much power 60 years ago and have earned a C- for their management of their territory since. The TCI went through direct rule and has a stricter constitution. The BVI narrowly avoided the same. We have almost twice the population of TCI and three times the population of the BVI. Gibraltar no longer matters because the UK is not in the EU, so the border with Spain is just a border now, and we have three times the people. Falklands were already fought over 30 years ago and had their moment…and we have around 30 times the number of people. And then there’s Cayman, which only has to pass the Isle of Man (which we’re about to) and Jersey (which we will, they only have 103,000) to be the largest territory *or* crown dependency. Meanwhile we aren’t some ancient possession governed by a combination of legal systems or a copycat of us in the Eastern Caribbean or an overrated 21 square miles in the middle of the Atlantic…we are Cayman, the UK’s partner for the security of its territories and citizens in the region. The territory with enough cash to go ‘oh we need another helicopter? Let’s have another helicopter then’. The UK is very proud of us and rightly so. Direct rule here will not happen. Wishful thinking, sorry.
We already have direk rule by Jamaicans..led by Saunders and aided and abetted by Mac, Seymour, Kenneth and the UDP members on boards.
Be afraid Cayman.
So instead of bribing the individual voters, you want the politicians to be bribed by a political party?
Gee, I wonder why the boundary report is being ignored. Could it possibly be because certain ministers find that new boundaries wouldn’t be in THEIR best interests?
Crooks running tings
The Sister Islands are not terribly far from what would be called a “rotten borough” a couple of hundred years ago.
That sums up Cayman all over though. A place operating on the same principles as back then whilst the world has moved on.
Agree. Amend the constitution and do away with the sister islands’ inordinate and unfair over-representation. Their populace is not worth 3 or 4 times more than a Grand Caymanian. Their populace is worth the exact same as a Grand Caymanian.
With all due respect sir, you must be smoking something.
Adding two more Members of Parliament. Increasing the size number of MPs from 19 to 21? If each MP cost the country CI$300,000 a year in salary, allowances, medical, pension, travel and the like, the answer is no.
Another Kenneth and Dwayne for what?
Caymanians do not support this.
Mr. McField go sit down. You have done nothing for us.
You were head of the PR points board, and you did nothing for us.
Based on what is presented in this article the biggest issue is the fact that Cayman Brac and Little Cayman have too big of a political influence.
Lets face it. The Cayman people will just elect another set of morons and idiots who just want to feed from the trough.
The pejoratively entitled and so-called; One Man One Vote (“OMOV”) has been an unmitigated disaster for these islands. It should never have been put in place.
Poor, inexperienced and insular leadership with an under and un-informed electorate thought this was the (only) way to curtail the Lord of West Bay (West) and his political sycophants. …“Baby” and “bathwater” come to mind…..
OMOV and Single Seat Constituencies (“SSC”) or the more correctly characterised “winner take all”/”first-past-the-post”, Westminster style electoral political system with but a small number of votes needed to get elected in each Cayman Islands’ SSC promotes a “race” to the bottom. Here, all “politrics” is truly “local”. Politicians are laser focused on their own hermetically sealed and silo-ed SSC where turkeys and TVs are the currency of (re)election.
Choice of representative for (would-be) voters is reduced to the lowest common denominator as but few of those with the requisite intellect, vision and drive necessary to really “do the state some service” wish to be dragged into the quagmire of this fundamentally flawed system of clientelism.
We must cast aside the shackles of Single Seat Constituencies, which promote the West Kingston(Bay??) garrison effect and all associated harm.
+ We need Multi-Seat Constituencies.
+ We need Proportional representation.
+ We need proper political parties based upon ideas and not personalities.
+ We need both district 3,4 or 5 seater constituencies AND an islands’ wide “super” single constituency also with 3 or 4 seats.
Candidates could stand in either the local or islands’ wide constituency and voters could vote in both (if they so choose). At least this is a way to promote maximum choice for voters – both at the micro and at the macro level. Ideally, states-women and men have a better chance of election in the island’s wide constituency where scale itself will mitigate the penchant for purchase of votes.
These multi-seat constituencies would also be the anecdote to unevenly populated districts.
This government of unemployables is NOT going to give up their overpaid lavish lifestyles to change OMOV, so vote very carefully in the next elections.
Without fear of contradiction, at least 5 of the UPM members would not and cannot read the report and make a informed decision. The main reason would be their minuscule amount of education.
Steve ole buddy, best you go talk to Cayman parrots- at least the try to converse even if only by squawking. Trying to talk to this UPM government is akin to using chalk on a dry erase board.
Next election I would personally like to be given the right to vote for my government. Put them all on the ballot and let the country decide. Perhaps then the candidates would consider appealing to the wishes of the entire voting public and not just their constituents. The country needs change now.
He is the joker who fought to get One Man One Vote.
That has destroyed the electoral process, as I predicted.
Now donkeys can get elected with a few votes!
Not to mention the many other former MLAs who are draining the treasury with their l8feti.e salaries and benefits.
A real flippin shame and disgrace!!
When will the Crystal Harbour, Britannia and Vista Del Mar Constituency come on line Mr. McField? Will that be after their status applications are determined? Will that be before or after the January deadline to register to vote?
Don’t hold your breath 9.30.
No way is this government going to allow their voter pool of uneducated unemployables to be diluted by thinking people , who will demand integrity and duty from their representatives.
As it stands, The corrupt and self seeking , leading the Ignorant , works just fine for them.
Potential exercise of gerrymandering? Me thinks MPs will do whatever is best for reelection of incumbents.
They too busy throwing away peoples money on stupid projects that adds no value to people’s lives. They have destroyed the serenity of the island and changed our way of life. Nothing will ever change as we have a bunch of self serving politicians that only wish to tear and asphalt the whole island!!
We hardly have any Caymanians in Bodden Town anymore. Pure Jamaicans.
100%..and all voting for John John..One “likkle” Jamaican concert and they all fall in line.
100% again…..and filling up their yards with mash up vehicles and other nasty stuff, playing loud session music non stop, putting up lean to shacks and other illegal buildings and pitching their garbage anywhere but the right place. Just like Jamaica, it’s home from home.
Saunders is the one to watch, Jonjon just a fool being led like a donkey.
is cig doing anything at the moment?
any comment mrs governor???
Joy riding overseas!
Fun, did they take their personal security detail with them again?
Why do you keep asking Mrs. Governor to comment on every issue?
Sir Alden very effectively over the years, weakened nearly all the Governor’s powers to the point where she has simply become a figurehead. You need to understand this basic fact.
No surprises there….name one Jamaican Bodden town MP who would be willing to have any of his Jamaican voters taken out of his district due to boundary changes.
The rest of the MPs are now doing sums to see if the proposed changes reduce their voter base.
Such a useless comment. when you have nothing productive to add you, the default is always to bring up nationalities. Last I checked only “Caymanians” were allowed to hold elected seats.
You think all the people who have held office or are registered to vote are actually Caymanians? How quaint.
You must be an Bodden Town MP benefitting from the Jamaicans who have Caymanian Status and vote for you.